1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reports Joshua Chefec, 20, Adam Justin, 19, Michael Pomerantz, 18, and George Trane, 19, face felony charges after they were accused of being paid to take the college entrance exams for others.

Chefec, Justin, and Trane, from Great Neck North High School, North Shore Hebrew Academy and Great Neck South, respectively, are charged with scheme to defraud in the first degree, falsifying business records in the second degree and criminal impersonation in the second degree. They all pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and face up to four years each in prison if convicted, CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan reported.

“He’s a very good kid. He’s outstanding. He knows the [difference] between right and wrong and he knows that taking a test for others is wrong,” Kohn told CBS 2’s Emily Smith.

Another friend of the accused told CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez, “The kids are truly good people. They all are smart students. They all have A average without cheating.”

District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the four defendants are accused of taking $500 to $3,600 to stand in for nine students, who are also facing charges for allegedly hiring the accused imposters, on SAT or ACT exams.

In all, 13 former or current Great Neck North students have been arrested, reports CBS 2’s Sanchez.

Rice said the scandal was well known within the halls of their schools and beyond.

“This scheme was so systemic; this fraud is so systemic that there were people who knew who to go to when they wanted to get a particular score. It was run like a business. There were referrals that were made. There was word of mouth,” Rice said.

Rice said Trane attends SUNY Stony Brook and that he took the ACT for two students, earning scores of 29 and 28. Rice said Chefec attends Tulane University and he took the ACT for a student and got a 31. Rice said Justin attends Indiana University and he took the SAT for a student and received a 1920. Rice said Pomerantz took the SAT for a student and received a 1720.

“Mr. Chefec’s matter was investigated some three years ago at the school level and it was unfounded,” Griffin said. “We intend to vigorously defend these charges and obviously he maintains his innocence.”

Griffin said Chefec — a graduate of Great Neck North High School — was not suspended or sanctioned.

Attorney Melvin Roth tells CBS 2’s Kristin Thorne that his client, a 17-year-old boy accused of hiring a stand-in, denies all the charges and will plead not guilty.

“I think this is overkill for this kind of thing,” Roth said. “We look forward to resolving this thing in court.”

Rice called the recent string of arrests “a systematic problem that compromises the integrity not only of the SAT, but also the ACT, in several schools in Nassau County and beyond.”

The D.A. also went on further to criticize the “gaping hole” in standardized test security, saying that ETS and ACT “do not report verified incidents of cheating to high schools or colleges.”

“This is a system begging for security enhancements,” Rice said.

State Sen. Ken Lavalle, chairman of the committee on higher education, says it’s not just students who may be in trouble.

“There are parents that are complicit in this,” said Lavalle. “They are involved. You can’t tell me that students are walking around with $3,500.”

On Tuesday, Rice said no parents have yet been charged with complicity, but she is not ruling that out. Even the students’ own lawyers questioned the parents’ involvement.

“We train our kids to hedge their bets, to get edges, to cheat, to take steroids, to trade on inside information and that’s the way these kids see it — on TV, on the computer. And, in essence, we are now punishing them for what we are training them to do. It’s a horrible, horrible testament to the way we are raising our kids right now,” defense attorney Michael Dergarabedian said.

Lavalle said every district attorney in the state ought to follow the lead in Nassau and investigate their own high schools.

The schools with accused students say they are fully cooperating with authorities.

Some students are not entirely surprised by the arrests.

“This stuff has been going on for a very long time,” said one student. “Everybody wants to succeed and go to the best college.”

Rice said those students charged as misdemeanor juvenile offenders will not be identified, and the courtroom will be sealed when they are arraigned.

Law enforcement negotiated Tuesday’s surrender date with the lawyers for the students, keeping it close to their Thanksgiving breaks from colleges.

One Comment

I run a financial firm in New York City with a staff of 200 and I will be more than happy to hire any one of these students to work for my firm. Seriously, I would hire them on the spot no questions asked! These students know how to think outside the box and that is exactly what any employer needs taday. There certainly is no shortage of college graduates to hire these days (I can go to Zuccoti Park and find thousands of them) but to to hire someone who is an innovator and is willing and able to go the extra mile to advance himself and his company is very rare indeed. Can somebody please tell me how much time, money & resources need to be spent to arrest and prosecute these teenage innovators of our society? Kathleen Rice is the one that needs to be arrested and she should reimburse the county the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it costs to go after these students.

It’s just too bad that we don’t go after crooked politicians and other government officials with the same elan and energy that we are using on these kids. Let me tell ya, we’d all be better off with more politicos in jail.

It’s called accountability! I’m tired of lawyers making excuses for extreme behavior. What about the other 95% of those students that did the right thing and didn’t cheat. They too were exposed to the same influences, but didn’t cheat!.

Why isn’t the media questioning the appropriateness of these prosecutions? Why is this being treated as a criminal matter? Why are government resources being used to prosecute what should be a civil matter between ETS, The College Board and the individuals involved? This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. In essence, the test administrator is using the government to enforce a contractual agreement by means of criminal prosecution. The appropriate response from the public should be jury nullification, and replacement of the District Attorney.

And why did they cheat? Perhaps it can be traced to parents who have no clue how to pass on any traits to their children except that you must get ahead. I hope the parents accept that they raised these creeps. not society.

wait till this entire generation is in red china, repairing the great wall, or building defense sites to guard against an attack from the used-to-be soviet union. 12 hour work shifts, sharing beds in huts insulated with old newspapers, etc., etc. then they will realize what opportunities were by-passed.

This has been going on since the Stone Ages…I remember doing this when we were in H.S. and we all became lawyers, doctors, stock brokers, teachers, etc. We all became productive members of society and now contributes back to our communities

So by your logic, it doesn’t matter how you arrive at success, as long as you get some that’s all that matters. And in the process, lying, cheating, stealing, and being involved in fraudulant behavior should be overlooked. You are exactly the type of parent who is ill-equipped to raise children with ethical values and morals. What about all the HONEST and HONRABLE students who study and sit through a pressure cooker of a test to EARN their way into college? They’re just suckers for not cheating? The world would be better off if you and those who share your flawed mentality were sterilized.

I feel bad for these kids. Just because they are white and have money they have to resort to cheating to get into a good school. If they were minorities they could go to the same colleges, for free, with much lower scores in the interest of “diversity”. Colleges are BS now, all they care about is being politically correct.

To all their defenders: Ever hear of FRAUD? It is a crime, regardless of their age, intentions, or pressure to get into college. They deserve to be punished. This will be a life lesson for them. If you think you can cheat, lie, steal, and scam your way through life, you run the risk of getting caught. They are caught. End of story. And if their parents are involved, they should face stiffer punishment for their culpability and for allowing their children to take the fall alone.

Aren’t there more compelling things the cops can be doing . Mr Lavalle please pull ur head out of ur ass. How much time , money and resources has been spent to arrest these REALLY DANGEROUS people. Get alife

Can someone tell me the crime here? This test is administered by a private company. They make a FORTUNE doing it. I still remember when I took this test, any sort of verification is a joke. How is this a felony??

BOY YOU PEOPLE NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE ME! WHEN THINGS LIKE THIS HAPPEN WHAT ABOUT THE BROWN PEOPLE WHO WORKED SO HARD TO PASS AND JUST MISSED IT, AND DIDNT MAKE THE CUT BUT THESE PEOPLE CHEAT THEIR WAY THROUGH LIFE AND LOOK DOWN UPON OTHER RACES.

WE KNOW WHO HAVE THE REAL KNOWLEDGE. ITS IN CORPORATE AMERICA AND EVERY OTHER WORK PLACE WHERE YOU PEOPLE HOLD THESE HIGH POSITIONS WITH NO EXPERIENCE OR THE EDUCATION…NOW I GET IT. ITS CALLED THE “HOOK UP”!!